Scotland v Samoa, 10 October

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SCOTLAND V SAMOA
10 October 2015
KO: 14:30 BST
St. James' Park, Newcastle

Live on ITV

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Touch judges: JP Doyle (England) & Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Television match official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

A. Head to Head

9 Played 9
7 Won 1
1 Drawn 1
1 Lost 7
218 Points 122

B. Recent Form

8 June 2013
Mr Price Kings Park, Durban, South Africa
27 – 17 Samoa

23 June 2012
Apia Park, Apia
16 – 17 Scotland

27 November 2010
Pittodire, Aberdeen
19 – 16 Scotland

20 November 2005
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
18 – 11 Scotland

4 June 2004
Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
3 – 38 Scotland

18 November 2000
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
31 – 8 Scotland

C. Teams

SCOTLAND

15 Stuart Hogg 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Willem Nel, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Jonny Gray, 6 Ryan Wilson, 7 John Hardie, 8 David Denton.

Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Josh Strauss, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Sean Lamont.

SAMOA

15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Paul Perez, 13 George Pisi, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Fa'atoina Autagavaia, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i (c); 1 Sakaria Taulafo, 2 Ma'atulimanu Leiataua, 3 Census Johnston, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 5 Kane Thompson, 6 Maurie Faasavalu, 7 Jack Lam, 8 Alafoti Faosiliva.

Replacements: 16 Motu Matu'u, 17 Viliamu Afatia, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Faifili Levave, 20 Vavae Tuilagi, 21 Vavao Afemai, 22 Patrick Faapale, 23 Ken Pisi.

123456789. wrote:If we can somehow grab a few early points, a try or a penalty and then just take the sting out.

The scots showed some excellent resilience when Wilson was off.

They'll do ok in the second half i'm sure.

Anyone's sound really tinny?

This reminds me of the Fiji game in 2003, if only we had Mossy.

Samoa have been so poor during restarts

Wilson is the worst Scotland flanker I think I've seen

George Carlin wrote:I have no intention of defending Wilson.

He had no idea where he was standing. If he'd stood on his face, that would have been red and that would probably have been the game.

Expect him to get hooked for Strauss pretty soon. I expect our fitness to hold and for us to calm the hell down. Hoping for a strong second half.

I am not defending him, I simply despise players holding on like that and getting away free. If I was the ref I would either upgrade the Samoan's infringement to a yellow card or put the Samoan team on a final warning for intentional foul play.

eirebilly wrote:

George Carlin wrote:I have no intention of defending Wilson.

He had no idea where he was standing. If he'd stood on his face, that would have been red and that would probably have been the game.

Expect him to get hooked for Strauss pretty soon. I expect our fitness to hold and for us to calm the hell down. Hoping for a strong second half.

I am not defending him, I simply despise players holding on like that and getting away free. If I was the ref I would either upgrade the Samoan's infringement to a yellow card or put the Samoan team on a final warning for intentional foul play.

Personally I'd have yellow carded Wilson and still given the penalty to Scotland.

That's another very good option 123456789

Corner?

Doh

Scotland should take the points, could bite them on the bum.

Why not go for points? A long time left on this half

Argh. FFS - kick the damn penalties - we can pressurise them later.

Ridiculous number of neck high shots from Samoa

Scotland aren't being sensible. They need to kick the three-pointers - Samoa have such poor discipline that it will inevitably pay substantial dividends.

Calm the feck down Scotland, this is getting silly

I fear a break away try for Samoa

Taking three points is so 2011

Is Matt Scott12 still concussed? He genuinely seems not to know where he is in the defensive line.
I'm not joking I am concerned for him.

Bennett is having a mare in defence.

Desperately need something out of this

Laidlaw is slow getting the ball away must get it away quicker.

Will Scotland rue not taking the points?

Hardie is absolutely everywhere again

Laidlaw is a complete liability. Turning down those points is criminal, especially against these teams.

The crowd said it all take the points.

HammerofThunor wrote:Will Scotland rue not taking the points?

Can't fathom why ascot aren't taking points, any win will do them, they don't need a bp to get second place and even a bp won't catch SA, and just as I type Sco go for goal

Clearly boring in my Samoa on loosehead side.

How good is John Hardie today? Ryan Wilson misses his tackle on the blindside and Hardie comes round from the open side to make the tackle.

Hardie is so far my motm front runner

Do you think in the Gray household they used to dress up as restarts for Halloween as they clearly think of them as frightening?

Samoa going back to giving away a lot of penalties - hopefully this is them returning to their former ways!

Harsh on Samoa there, Scottish player off his feet first.

Scotland doing exactly as they need to now.

Think Samoa are being hard done by here.

tigertattie wrote:How good is John Hardie today? Ryan Wilson misses his tackle on the blindside and Hardie comes round from the open side to make the tackle.

Hardie is so far my motm front runner

Well, the kiwi's are pretty decent rugby players

That Scottish player was walking forward on his hands but the counter ruck was good?

And clearly the Samoan player was on his feet and first at the ball. I think they're poor discipline in the first half has biased the ref against them.

Nice ball and all tackle.

I think I'm in love with John Hardie

Sounds simple - if we have the ball, they can't score!!

Samoa surely due a yellow soon

Samoa back to their old bad habits.

One eyed commentator, the reason the tackle was high was because the player ducked

Samoa seem to be a fraction slower in getting to the breakdowns, the ref now starting to ping them on a regular basis.

Odd. We turned down 3 easy points and kicked to touch. This time the kick is much harder and we go for the goal?

And miss!!!

PS. The Samoan high tackles are getting rediculous

Scotland need to keep slotting these penalties, build the scoreboard and build the pressure. Samoa will then surely implode

That clear out looked a bit dodgy

nathan wrote:That clear out looked a bit dodgy

The Scottish player picking up the legs and he Samoan guys neck bending? It made me wince.

HammerofThunor wrote:

nathan wrote:That clear out looked a bit dodgy

The Scottish player picking up the legs and he Samoan guys neck bending? It made me wince.

Might be a citing for it unfortunately

John Hardie again, if Mark Bennett is the messiah then John Hardie is St. Paul

Yellow time surely! Come on ref they're almost in double figures this half alone!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Yellow time surely! Come on ref they're almost in double figures this half alone!

Trouble is Scotland aren't far behind them!

And another penalty - come on Laidlaw, remind the ref